Reinforcements.
Team Titan Think Tank Issue 31- "Occupied Territory Part Eight- Reinforcements." Front cover- Yu stands on the cover, doing a kung fu kick which seems to 'shatter' the front cover with the whole bottom of his foot. Along the bottom of the cover are the words 'HE'S BACK.' Tonic looks around, attempts and fails to stop the nosebleed, then, still crawling, goes up the wall to her right, and keeps going straight through the ceiling. The comic shows the building from the side, as Tonic phases her way up two floors. CUT The comic cuts to Cain, Sonne and the Blitzbot, just outside of the golden dome "... Clever. And unexpected" the Blitzbot mutters. "But I still have more surprises." He speaks louder this time. He looks up. "And zere is one." He looks pointedly to Sonne. "Enjoy." In the sky, a lone missile flies down towards Cain and Sonne. As its rocket flares get closer, it is evident that it is not a missile at all, but a humanoid shape. "No..." Sonne looks up in disbelief. "Dad?" Tommy Gunn gets a full splash page in his super-adaptive, orange visored, british flag coloured power armour, he flying downward at Sonne. "He was impossible to break. Until his cure wore off... zen he became a puppet like ze rest." Blitzkrieg boasts The comic cuts to look at Gunn Jr. from Tommy's point of view, his face a mix of fear, horror, and resigned duty. The fists of Tommy's suit outstretched to punch at his Sonne, Gunn Jr. twists nimbly at the last moment, as Gunn Sr streaks down, momentum carrying him on. A suburban house gets totalled, its rubble flying through the air. Civilians below just stand in the streets, eerily watching on this side of the golden bubble; on the other side, they mostly scream and flee. CUT Team Titan Black attack, though only the reader and the robots see them; Ripcage manifests skeletal wings and flies onto Molekulus's back. He stabs at him, but to no avail, as the blades merely get stuck in extenbible flab. Le Qui looks to the robots, and calmly fires off a series of shots; 6 of the 8 true Shocktroopers explode from uncanny shots through weak points like eyes and joints. Leviathan leaps through the air and lands on the chest of one the Shocktroopers, kicking his feet out of its back as it collapses to the floor in pieces. Yu looks somewhat confused to see seven Shocktroopers either explode or fly into pieces randomly, from his perspective. CUT The comic cuts to the Blitzbot with Sonne and Cain, as the Blitzbot flies backwards. "It seems the son of ze Battling Briton is more than he appears. My peace in zis city has come to an end. Ze destruction to come... that is on your heads." The Blitzbot fires a concentrated beam of heat at Cain from his chest Cain glances at one blue hand. "Seems I wasn't prepared for *this*." he says, raising it in the way of the beam anyway, first wincing then seething as it starts peeling scales from his hand and face. He is, again, left smoking, and now coughing, as the beam dissipates - his suit has been pierced and burnt through in multiple places, and he is clearly quite battered. "Yet you appear to somehow resist my nanite control Cain..." says a Blitzbot... a new one, that rises from the civilians below. "I wonder how. Your new little Gunn, seems to somehow possess nanites derived from my amalgmated Optech 'brother' as Wrench did... but you? A shame. Your intelligence could have been put to good use with my own... but then I am already the smartest being that ever existed." This new Blitzbot fires another beam, but this time, Cain avoids it. CUT The comic cuts to the rogue Shocktrooper facing Molekulus. "Hrm. Your folds of fat appear to be somehow reinforced. I must therefore target... softer parts..." The unusual Shocktrooper rams a fist down Molekulus's throat. "You wish to eat, fat man? Eat this." CUT The comic cuts back to Dungeon Master; the sewer shakes, from the explosions somewhere above. "Time to go bro... time for the old fashioned trick..." He gestures up at the ceiling. "You know how it goes... Rocks fall...." Dungeon Master fires a huge blast at the ceiling. BWOOOOOOOOOOOM. The comic shows a purple beam striking the ceiling, then a massive dust cloud. DM stands there with a purple dome over his, as it dissipates looking through the rubble before him. The comic cuts to his infa-red view. He sees GM's very bright signature still beneath the rubble. "Damn it, don't you ever ZTTTTTT..." he looks up. Golden light illuminates through the hole. "What the...?" Time tae go, I thin'... GRIFFONNNNNN!" he yells. He gestures down, creating a griffon of purple energy, he flies off into the sky with a "Catch you later for another fight to the death, brother!" CUT Back on Blitzkrieg Island, Bogeyman makes a loud roar and flings his shield, decapitating a Shock Trooper leaving only the one fighting Molekulus left. CUT Sonne looks around him. There is an orange brick rectangular building behind him, BBC Titan, the same building that Dr Fear used to broadcast his terror to Titan City, years ago. "... I won't fight you, Dad." Gunn Sr bursts out of the rubble below. "Thats... ngh... me boy..." The comic cuts to show a tv studio. Sonne crashes in through the wide window and bursts through more glass, to land at a broadcasting desk "Needs must... I hope my tutors back home can forgive some sloppy welding..." Gunn looks over the various consoles, cameras and broadcasting equipment. He closes his eyes and convulses slightly. All the parts he requires from all the componants in the room, from diodes to casing to circuitboards, assemble infront of him with all the force of a star collapsing. When he opens his eyes, the device is before him. Complete. "That was Lucky." With a quick flick of the wrist, Gunn raises the device and snaps it to his armour. It blinks with a steady red light. "Generational Remote Access Nanite Datasystem Designed Against Demise now online" comes the response through the device, in a considerably neutral, machine voice, with none of the familial tones of Francis Gunn within it. "Gramps, I need some BREAKER. So does Dad. Get ready to deploy." "Readying deployment" comes a voice, once again, lacking Francis's tones "You feeling alright, Grandad?" "Generational Remote Access Nanite Datasystem Designed Against Demise is at optimal capacity." "Zark-... one problem at a time. Inform me of any complications." Gunn makes a run for the window he entered from. "As commanded." Sonne boosts his way outside. CUT Cut to the rubble of the sewer section. As dust clears there is a moment of still. Energy bursts around the rubble, sending bits flying towards the reader. Games Master stands in the centre, eyes glowing with a hint of Red with the energy he released. White angelic wings flay out at either side, in homage to Kid Icarus, as he rises from the rubble pile. The next panel shows his radar vision lock onto his decided destination. Games Master sees the chaos now erupting under the golden dome as the nanite infected beneath it are freed from control. He can see helicpters in the distance firing missiles at Reichdroids. In the much further distance, a massive brontosaurus is being attacked by about twenty of them, as it cracks its tail, and the Reichdroids explode in the next panel. GM cannot see Blitzkrieg Island beyond the hole Reb left, but can detect it. He then sees the heavily damaged Megaplex and flies towards it, making a brief look towards his brother, flying off to the North, towards where huge gold and white flashes of energy are visible over a distant mountain range, and lightning bolts shoot up into the sky, rather than downward. Games Master lands on the roof, slipping through the force field without harm as he sees Esc-Ape and Citizen Ape, both very injured, looking very confused, and angry. "YOU! WHERE BLITZKRIEG?" Citizen Ape booms The energy wings fold down and then disappear, he turns to the ape- "Calm down-. Blitzkrieg is not here, but I sensed where he is-" "THEN TELL US! WE -SMASH- HIM!" "Now hold on," Games Master spreads out his hands. "We all need to work together- have you seen any of the others from the team?" "Okay... we work together -to- smash BLITZKRIEG!" Citizen Ape smashes his fists together. "But your friends... Citizen Ape might have blasted two of them long away..." he points, slightily gulity, to where he sent Sonne and Cain, not that GM has any idea from that. "Don't know about others." "Then we find them first- we're going to need all the intelligence we can get if we're going to take the boss, once and for all-" CUT The comic cuts to show something phasing through the bottom of Blitzkrieg Island, something human-shaped and blue; the comic focusses on Blitzkrieg's true new form, resembling his human form of Doktor Dominion, the angular, skinny version of Molekulus, but made from tiny, blue electrical zeroes and ones, as it 'lands' on the city floor. "There he is!" "Make him pay!" "GET HIM!" scream a bunch of angry civiilians, as their fists and makeshift wepaons simply pass through him "...Fools, I am past any physical form you can harm now." "HOSTILES DETECTED!" "ATTACKING!" The ten Orbiters outside Blitzkrieg Island turn their heat beams upon the populace surrounding Blitzkrieg. The comic shows a single paged spread of Blitzkrieg 'walking' towards the reader, grinning as heat beams, explosions, cars and civlaisn fly into the air behind as the Reichdroids poper the streets with heat beams. This is going on behind Games Master on the Megaplex roof. "Uh, might want deal with that instead" Citizen Ape weakly points "NEW HOSTILE DETECTED" the Megaplex then drones "Uh-oh." Citizen Ape leaps off the roof, just as the cube of energy appears around Games Master, immobolising him.. CUT The comic cuts to Tonic, phasing her hands and feet up a wall to climb it, as a cube phases out the floor beneath her, but she phases through the energy bars and phases up through the ceiling to the next floor. CUT We cut back to Cain. "I can assure you, Blitzkrieg, that there is quite the story behind my ability to resist you." Cain chimes, straight backed and head high despite his many injuries. "I trust by now you're fully aware of the Titan's nanite cure... and of its failings, based on the way you *insist* on assaulting me through my own handler's body. "Oh yes, a temporary treatment, something Gunn knew, but did admit... and vy would he, he never would have dreamed zat he vould have lost access to his machine. A machine I have since located and destroyed, of course." "Well, of course." Cain all but scoffs. "Alas, I never knew where the device was to begin with. Each of the less... trusted, recipients of the gift was to be blindfolded during the procedure." he gives a signature wide shrug as he says "Naturally, I was among that group. I complied, of course." he continues, in a close up of his head, "But though I couldn't see what was going on, I can assure you, the place reeked of *her*..." "Ah yes... your true nemesis... the cat." "Bast. You recall her, then, Blitzkrieg?" he says, a little smug, "Then I'm you understand why I wasn't willing to let my safety rest *entirely* on her." "It amazes me ze Titans would. They are even more fools than i thought, but you... we still could be allies Cain. The dinosaur that a man created in his own image, only to create something that surpassed him... and ze machine zat surpassed his own humanity. Forsake zis madness and join me. I will free your creations, if you would lead zem, and we will create a new world. Machine and dinosaur. Leave the humans behind. We have evolved beyond zem." "Come now, Blitzkrieg. We would work so perfectly together... but for how long? I have seen Wrench's corpse. You know as well as I do that it wouldn't last." he says, surprisingly playfully "Well. You have a 4 mile hemisphere of city running riot, and ze little Gun has clearly just created some device to end me. Deseperate times, old friend." Cain sighs, then chuckles, giving Blitzkrieg an almost sad look. "Now, I'm afraid that I never gained access to my medical files to discover the real energy signature behind the cure, thanks to Waterstone's sanctions..." he continues, hissing the name somewhat. "It was my good fortune to meet someone at the base who... taught me to look inside myself", he says, taking on a respectful quiet compared to the rest of his monologue. Cain slips each of his claws down the sleeve of his opposite arm, not unlike the typical image of a monk. "Sure enough, I found the power within. And I've become *much* better at channelling it since I have. I am free of your power, Blitzkrieg. I am nobody's minion... no more. Your nanites can't touch me. Nor my suit..." He slips his claws free, displaying he has morphed one arm into the smaller, light brown Little Mike form, and that he is holding something metallic in the other claw. As he morphs his claw back to Cain Red, the object grows rapidly in size, until Cain is holding up a sleek, gleaming gun. "... nor this." he grins, pointing the weapon down at Blitz formidably "A part of me is pained to do this, Blitzkrieg. Unfortunately for you, it's that part I've come to hate the most." "Ah. an Allurian Magna-Pulse Blaster. It seems you have me at odds. But zen, there are two hosts before you..." the comic shows the civilains just staring below "And so many more potential hosts below. Do you think you can destroy each one before they blast you to pieces? You aren't looking healthy." "All part of the plan." he says, again leaking menace, somehow emphasised by his scrapes and burns. And of course, during the exchange, Cain has been charging the weapon, the sleek metal shifting in places to open exhausts and mag coils. When he delivers the final line, the tip of the weapon is humming with electromagnetic energy - he pulls the trigger, sending out a blue ball that looks like a shockwave in the air that travels quickly at first, then slows as it draws near Blitzbot, but as it slows he begins to be dragged toward it. The effect proving strong enough to tug at both the Blitzbots in Cain's vicinity. The comic shows the armour of the Blitzbot's shift as the nanites start to flow apart in various directions towards the ball of electromagetic energy, but as the nanites fly off the human hosts, one being Mr Psychic, more simply reform as the armour constantly flows on and off them until the energy ball dissipates, leaving the two bots still floating there. "You see, Cain, I was bluffing. You zink I would have Allurians -in- my army if zere weapons could harm me? Of course not. You see, you are not as smart as you think you are. But still, smarter than most. But it seems not enough. You had a rare offer of mercy... now..." The comic zooms in on robotic glowing eyes. ".... you die. Oh, and as I kill you..." The two robots gesture in the distance, as more portals open in the sky above the dome. "I vill be killing your friends too." CUT The next sixteen missiles drop at the Megaplex. The Games Master makes a quick glance around as he senses the base force field begins to cascade away, breaking and disintegrating down, and particles rain down through the surrounding area. Games Master steadies himself in stance - his head back challenging the missiles that fall downwards. "Shields up!" He yells to the heavens. Energy explodes out of his form and expands outwards, encompassing the base. The reader sees the shield grow from a top down view of the city as the missiles enter the scene. CUT We cut back to Cain, as he makes it to the window that Sonne is about to leave, covering his retreat using his blaster. "Not *quite* as effective as I'd like. No time to ramble any more. I need that transmitter *now*, Gunn. I had Nykus make another version of BREAKER. *My* version of it. The one that would have ended all of this before it began." "No need- I've got GRANDDAD online right now, he is ready to launch BREAKER again any second!" Sonne responds CUT The comic then cuts to GM, looking, with a final single page spread, as the missiles fall End of issue.